Rumsfeld kept bogey of terror alive to rally Americans behind Bush

In a series of internal memos to his staff, written between 2002 and 2006 and published in various US newspapers, Rumsfeld appears desperate to reshape public opinion of the Iraq war.

“Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make American people realise they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists,” Rumsfeld urged his staff in a memo written in April 2006.

“People will rally to sacrifice. They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice - Victory,” Rumsfeld writes.

“Link Iraq to Iran” and develop “bumper sticker statements” to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war, he argues.

“Iran is the concern of the American people, and if we fail in Iraq, it will advantage Iran,” Rumsfeld adds

On Nov 8, 2006, Rumsfeld stepped down after a humiliating defeat for the ruling Republican Party in the mid-term congressional election.

His critics blamed his unpopular Iraq policies for the defeat.

In one memo, Rumsfeld also blames oil rich Muslim nations for his troubles, and laments that oil wealth has at times detached Muslims “from the reality of the work, effort and investment that leads to wealth for the rest of the world.

Too often Muslims are against physical labour, so they bring in Koreans and Pakistanis while their young people remain unemployed,” he writes.

“An unemployed population is easy to recruit to radicalism. If radicals get a hold of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, the US will have “an enormous national security problem,” Rumsfeld writes

The Washington Post, which was the first newspaper to obtain these memos, notes that the missives show how much Rumsfeld was affected by criticism and how he worked to get American public to support the Iraq war.

In an earlier memo on the deteriorating situation in Iraq, Rumsfeld argues that the challenges there are “not unusual.”

In a memo to national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley in July 2006, Rumsfeld warns that the US is “getting run out of Central Asia” by the Russians, who are doing a “considerably better job at bullying” than Washington is doing to “counter their bullying.” (ANI)